US: A Texas grand jury has indicted former Republican leader of the House of Representatives Tom DeLay for alleged involvement in money-laundering related to the 2002 Texas election, raising new and more serious allegations than the conspiracy charge lodged against him last week.
The surprising new indictments on Monday followed by a matter of hours a motion by Mr DeLay's Texas legal defence team to quash last week's charge on the grounds that the Texas prosecutor in charge of the case lacked authority to bring it.
The lawyers alleged that the crime of conspiracy was not covered by the state election law at the time of the alleged violation. Later a different grand jury which had no prior involvement in the case brought the new charges, which roughly match allegations made against two of Mr DeLay's political associates one year ago.
One count of the new indictment accuses Mr DeLay of conspiracy to commit money-laundering. It says he agreed with one or more associates to launder $190,000 in corporate contributions through an arm of the Republican National Committee in Washington, allowing the funds to be passed illegally into the election campaigns of Republican candidates in Texas.
The aim of the assistance was to ensure that Republicans could gain control of the Texas house and reorder the state's congressional districts to favour the Republicans. The stratagem worked. Five more Republicans were elected to the US House from Texas last year, making it harder for Democrats to gain control of Congress.
Mr DeLay has said his resignation as majority leader is temporary and vowed to continue to influence the House through his close ties to Speaker J Dennis Hastert and other leaders.
Some Republicans, however, have questioned whether he should be allowed to return to power. - (LA Times-Washington Post Service)